Leon’s first mission: at uncle jurgen’s house

Now, so soon afterwards, jurgen escher can already laugh about this incident again. Less than a week ago, he talked to his colleagues in the fire department about the fact that many houses and apartments now have wood-burning stoves. "And that's why many a fire has been started by still hot ashes." The chairman of the fire department had not thought that something like this could happen to him. Think!
As chairman of the zeickhorn firefighters' association, escher is well aware of the dangers that can arise from ashes that have not been completely exhausted. And yet: right at the beginning of the new year the family's garbage can caught fire. Only the prudent action of his nephew leon eckardt prevented worse from happening.
Escher remembers with a guilty conscience: "in the rush, I probably didn't check exactly whether the ash had really cooled down completely." Instead, the fire department "chief" piled them up, without thinking about it, throwing things into the garbage can. Then fate naturally took its course. Since the ash was not cold enough, a classic trashcan fire developed. Ten-year-old leon discovered it by chance.
The fact that leon was able to intervene was then again a coincidence. Because his snowboarding course was cancelled, the boy wanted to go to his uncle, who lives in the immediate neighborhood. He actually just wanted to ask him something. "When I stood in front of the house, I saw smoke in the garden. At first i thought that my uncle might be barbecuing or burning something because it smelled so funny", leon eckardt tells us. When he got closer to the ground, he saw that the garbage can was on fire. Leon rang the eschers' doorbell, ran home, and immediately went to his grandfather. "I was quite excited", leon tells us, and immediately started looking for water to put out the fire.

It was clear what was going on

When jurgen escher opened the door and saw that there was a fire on the property, he immediately knew where the fire was and why it had happened. "I immediately ran out of the house to the dustbin. After it had been extinguished with the slurry can, i tipped it over and looked for embers to extinguish them as well", tells the fire-causer. Had leon not noticed the fire – who knows what kind of damage there was then. After all, the blazing flames were a good one and a half meters high from the plastic barrel that stood against the wall of the house. The landlord was aware of the danger: "since there was only about a meter of space between the flames and the gutter, it certainly didn't take long for them to spread to the roof."
Grandpa dieter eckardt was impressed by his grandson's quick reaction, even though he thought it was a joke at first. The former fire department commander has already been called out to a fire that was triggered by carelessness in a kitchen. "Such fires do not happen so rarely. That's why the active members of the fire brigade should practice again and again for the possible use", he suggests.
Leon's exemplary behavior paid off for him as well. His uncle thanked him with a ticket for the "eich", the 8. June to the jubilee of the SC sylvia ebersdorf in the neighboring community performance. Thoughtful action shall finally pay off. Escher: "my nephew has reacted absolutely right. He rang our bell, showed us where the fire was, asked an adult for help and did not try to touch the hot barrel." Especially the latter was important, because the melting plastic could have caused serious burns on the hands. Only a short touch of the barrel was enough. From the "heiben jahresbeginn" (start of the year) the chairman of the fire department has in any case learned the lesson that it is better to check the ash once more before it is dumped into the dustbin. The well known advice "please do not fill hot ashes" no longer hanging on to the new barrels, he.

"I will become a firefighter

"I stand by my mistake and would like to point out that no one is immune to a fire caused by carelessness", says the fire department chairman. And for leon, who likes to hang out with friends and play soccer, his first good deed of the new year has made one thing clear: "when i'm twelve in a year and a half, i'm joining the fire department. That is clear."